Highlights

On Friday, I dropped Grace off with a sitter so that I could enjoy a lunch date with friend. When Mike got home from work, I fed him a dinner of leftovers from the week and then dragged him out to Target with me and Grace. Could I have just left him and Grace at home? Of course. But we both find it very hard to stay apart when we could be together. We've had plenty of mandatory apart time, thanks to Farrah, so even if it's just to run mundane errands, we will gladly do it together.

Saturday morning, Mike had to scratch a few things off his honey-do list like clean the garage and fix a few blinds around the house. While he was working around the house, Grace kept me company as I continue my battle with the flab.


We spent the afternoon at the beach. My goal was to just sit, relax, and read my book while the two played in the water, but I forgot to pack my book. Which was just as well because I couldn't keep away from all the fun the two were having. Grace's laughter as the waves crashed into her was completely contagious. She is such a beach baby! Every single day she asks to go to the beach and I vow to try to go as often as we can this summer. This will be our last summer in Jacksonville and who knows when we'll be this close to a beach again, so we are going to take advantage of it as much as we possibly can.


After the beach, we went home to fire up the grill and made some pretty awesome portabella mushroom burgers. Even my meat-loving husband agreed it needed to be a part of our summertime meal rotation. I am loving our new grill and I can't believe it took us this long to start using one again.

Taking a break while happily munching on her sandy goldfish snacks.

It was just Grace and me on Sunday because Mike had duty. We went to church in the morning where Grace behaved like an angel. I was pleasantly surprised. Usually I sit in church, ever ready to make a mad dash to the baby cry room, but today there was no need for such anxiety. People actually complimented me on her good behavior! As her reward, I bought her a plate of sugar cookies with sprinkles at the church bake sale. She ate a couple and I'm doing my best to keep my hands off the rest of them as they now sit on the kitchen counter.

A Costco trip was next where Grace had her lunch by eating all the samples offered around the store. I filled the cart with two things I absolutely needed- laundry detergent and olive oil- and then a few other things that I didn't know I needed until I saw them. Darn you, Costco, you always do this to me! I joined a wholesale club to SAVE money!


After Grace's nap, we went shopping for a few things she'll need for our upcoming vacation to the Florida Keys. She is now a proud owner of a Dora the Explorer life vest and hot pink water shoes. For the record, I tried to find a non-themed life vest, but I just couldn't find one in her size. It was either Dora or Spiderman, so we went with Dora.

We ended our day by sitting on the lawn and blowing bubbles, eating popsicles, and then riding her bike around the driveway. It was fun to see her finally getting the hang of pedaling. She's still working on the steering though, as evidenced by the near crashes into our neighbors' cars.

It was a pretty fabulous day (except for the part about Mike on duty). Can't wait to see what the new week has in store for us.